World War II or the Second World War occurred between 1939 and 1945 between the Allied Powers and the Axis Powers (Wikipedia 2006). The Allied Powers were led by the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the U.S. The Axis Powers were led by Germany, Italy and Japan. World War II claimed 12 million lives and began in response to the military aggression of Nazi Germany under Adolph Hitler and Japan's imperialist ambition in Asia. Nazi aggression was aimed at the conquest of Lebensraum to increase the German Empire but at the expense of the peoples of Eastern Europe and the destruction of the Jews. Records say that approximately 62 million or 6.2% of the world, perished in this War and that 60% of them were civilians, who died because of disease, starvation, genocide, massacres and aerial bombing. After the War, power shift from Western Europe and the British Commonwealth to the United States and the Soviet Union. Britain ended this War in great financial debt to America and this necessitated a change in policy. One notable example was the Marshall Plan, established by U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall. It called for the allocation of billions of dollars by the U.S. Congress for the reconstruction of Europe (Wikipedia).
In the U.S., as well as in Canada, women themselves had to join the workforce (Wikipedia 2006). These women in America were called Rosies, named after Rosie the Riveter. President Franklin Roosevelt emphasized that the common efforts of men and women civilians at home in support of the war through personal sacrifice were crucial to winning it by the soldiers themselves. Supplies were limited and rationing had to be resorted to. American production was a major factor in maintaining supplies for the Allies ahead of the Axis powers. The production of 369 warships by...
The U.S. also rebuilt the Merchant Marine, reduced building time of a Liberty or Victory ship from 105 days to only 56. Efficiency was the thing and improved efficiency derived from technological advances in shipbuilding. Hull plates were welded instead of bolted, plastics replaced certain metals and modular construction was used (Wikipedia).
Technological advances in aircraft and tank design were decisive during this War (Wikipedia 2006). For the first time, nuclear weapons, radar, jet engines and electronic computers were used. There were also new inventions and weapon contracts, issued to private contractors and deployed with the task of killing more effectively than ever before. The massive research and development demands of warfare created a huge impact on the growth of the scientific community. After World War II, these developments created new sciences, like cybernetics and computer science, eventually evolving entirely new institutions of weaponry and weapon design (Wikipedia).
An inevitable consequence of these two World Wars is an even greater preoccupation with excellence, efficiency, convenience and conquest in American thought and life.
Bibliography
1. Smithsonian. The Price of Freedom: Americans at War. National Museum of American History, 2006. http://americanhistory.is.edu/militaryhistory
2. West, Woody. The Systematization of Everything. Policy Review, Oct-Nov 1999 # 9. http://www.policyreview.org/oct99/west.html
3. Wikipedia. World War I. Media Wiki, 2006. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/world_war_1#Aftermath
4. -. World War II. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II
